reddit-cli

A command-line interface for browsing Reddit, built in Rust. Provides five commands for browsing subreddits, searching posts, reading post details with comment trees, viewing user profiles, and fetching comments.

Prerequisites

• Rust (1.80+ for LazyLock support)
• A Reddit account
• Reddit API credentials (OAuth2 "script" app)

Setup

1. Create a Reddit App

1. Go to Reddit App Preferences.
2. Click "create another app..." at the bottom.
3. Fill in:
   • name: reddit-cli (or any name)
   • type: select script
   • redirect uri: http://localhost:8080
4. Click "create app".
5. Note the client ID (string under the app name) and the client secret.

Note: Password-based OAuth does not work with accounts that have two-factor authentication (2FA) enabled. Use an account without 2FA or disable it temporarily.

2. Configure Credentials

cp .env.example .env

Edit .env with your credentials:

REDDIT_CLIENT_ID=your_client_id
REDDIT_CLIENT_SECRET=your_client_secret
REDDIT_USERNAME=your_reddit_username
REDDIT_PASSWORD=your_reddit_password

3. Build

cargo build --release

The binary will be at target/release/reddit-cli.

Usage

Browse a Subreddit

Fetch posts from a subreddit with a given sort order.

reddit-cli browse <subreddit> [OPTIONS]

Option	Short	Default	Description
--sort	-s	hot	Sort order: hot, new, top, rising, controversial
--limit	-l	25	Number of posts to fetch (1-100)
--time	-t	day	Time filter for top/controversial: hour, day, week, month, year, all

Examples:

# Hot posts from r/rust
reddit-cli browse rust

# Top posts from r/programming this week
reddit-cli browse programming --sort top --time week --limit 10

# New posts from r/linux
reddit-cli browse linux --sort new --limit 5

Search Reddit

Search across all of Reddit or within a specific subreddit.

reddit-cli search <query> [OPTIONS]

Option	Short	Default	Description
--subreddit	-r		Restrict search to a subreddit
--sort	-s	relevance	Sort order: relevance, hot, top, new, comments
--limit	-l	25	Number of results (1-100)
--time	-t	all	Time filter: hour, day, week, month, year, all

Examples:

# Search all of Reddit
reddit-cli search "async runtime"

# Search within a subreddit
reddit-cli search "error handling" --subreddit rust --sort top --limit 10

# Recent results only
reddit-cli search "release" --subreddit linux --time week

View a Post

Get a post's full details including its comment tree.

reddit-cli post <post_id> [OPTIONS]

The post_id argument accepts:

• A bare post ID (e.g., abc123)
• A full Reddit URL (e.g., https://www.reddit.com/r/rust/comments/abc123/...)
• A short URL (e.g., https://redd.it/abc123)

Option	Short	Default	Description
--depth	-d	3	Maximum depth of nested comment replies (0-10)
--limit	-l	50	Maximum number of top-level comments (1-200)

Examples:

# View a post by ID
reddit-cli post abc123

# View with deeper comment nesting
reddit-cli post abc123 --depth 5 --limit 20

# View from a full URL
reddit-cli post "https://www.reddit.com/r/rust/comments/abc123/some_title/"

View a User Profile

Get a user's profile information with optional recent posts and comments.

reddit-cli user <username> [OPTIONS]

Option	Short	Default	Description
--posts	-p	false	Include the user's recent posts
--comments	-c	false	Include the user's recent comments

Examples:

# Basic profile info
reddit-cli user spez

# Profile with recent posts and comments
reddit-cli user spez --posts --comments

# Just recent comments
reddit-cli user spez --comments

View Comments

Fetch comments from a post with a specific sort order. Similar to post but focuses only on the comment tree.

reddit-cli comments <post_id> [OPTIONS]

Option	Short	Default	Description
--sort	-s	best	Sort order: best, top, new, controversial, old, qa
--limit	-l	50	Maximum number of comments (1-200)

Examples:

# Best comments
reddit-cli comments abc123

# Top comments, limited to 10
reddit-cli comments abc123 --sort top --limit 10

# Newest comments from a URL
reddit-cli comments "https://www.reddit.com/r/rust/comments/abc123/title/" --sort new

Output Format

Posts are displayed as a numbered list with metadata:

[1] Title of the post
    r/subreddit | u/author | 1,234 pts (95%) | 56 comments | 2h ago
    https://reddit.com/r/subreddit/comments/abc123

Comments are displayed as an indented tree:

u/author | 42 pts | 3h ago
Comment body text...

  u/reply_author | 10 pts | 2h ago
  Reply body text...

User profiles show account stats:

u/username
Account age: 5y | Link karma: 12,345 | Comment karma: 67,890

License

MIT